Cheryl L. George is a former special education teacher (K-12), with classroom teaching experience in resource rooms and self-contained special education classrooms, grades 1-8. She also has classroom teaching experience in a short-term residential hospital setting, grades 1-12. Prior to working fulltime in higher education, she was a special education consultant for the Lancaster-Lebanon Intermediate Unit #13 for 5 years, providing training and technical assistance to general education and special education teachers. She has worked in tenure track faculty positions for the last 20 years, preparing special education teachers.
Her primary research goals involve: (1) improving the behavior and academic performance of children with disabilities (especially students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and EBD) and (2) providing pre-service teachers with practical experiences, which increase their abilities to successfully educate and support children with disabilities and their families. For the last 12 years, her colleagues and she have been studying the effects of aerobic exercise on behavior, academic responding, motor skills, and sleep in children on the Autism Spectrum.
Published Works:
- Kanupka, J. W., Oriel, K. N., George, C. L., Crist, L., Deardorff, K., Douglass, D., Prenger, K., Ulicny, R., & Wirick, D. (in press). The impact of aquatic exercise on sleep behaviors in children with autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Intellectual Disability – Diagnosis and Treatment.
- George, C. L., Kanupka, J. W., & Oriel, K. N. (2017). The impact of participation in community-based research among undergraduate and graduate students. Journal of Allied Health, 46(1), e15-e24.
- Kanupka, J. W., Oriel, K. N., George, C. L., Hanna, A., Lloyd, S., & Snyder, O. (2016). The impact of participation in an aquatic exercise program on behavior in children with autism spectrum disorder: A preliminary study. Austin Journal of Autism & Related Disabilities, 2(2), 1-6.
